Preferred type of
aerial is affected by several factors, but mostly by transmitting
site. In the middle of the area you want to cover you'll need an
omnidirectional aerial which transmits equally all ways, while outside
your coverage area you can beam the signal in with a directional
aerial. Before going on air get a low VSWR by adjusting the position
of the aerial and any of it's adjustable pieces. Aim for 2:1 or
less. Use low power into the aerial when tuning it up and making
adjustments. If you were using 100's of watts and a bit of the aerial
came off in your hand the VSWR could be so bad as to blow the final
transistor. For the same reason check the DC continuity of the aerial
with an ohmmeter before plugging it in, to be sure it's what it's
meant to be, either a short circuit or an open one, depending on
the aerial type. A dipole shown below should be an open circuit.

A PIECE OF WIRE OR TV ANTENNA ARE NOT ANTENNAS
FOR MAX-1 OR ANY OTHER RADIO EXCITER!

You have to realize
that antenna was, is and will always be crucial part of the system.
Special care has to be taken! It is usually good idea to place antenna
away from your transmitter, power supply and audio system. If you
cannot meet these requirements, you could experience feedback and
other RF problems. Interestingly, RF energy can make CD players
and other digital devices go bezerk. Try placing 30W-driven antenna
next to yours.

Dummy
Load

Dummy
load is not actually an aerial, it dissipates all transmitted power
in a form of heat. So what's the use of it? Well, it is presents
an ideal match for an output of your transmitter (usually 50ohms).
Since all (almost) power is transverted into heat, there won't be
any interference to your neighbors while you do tuning and testing.
This is what dummy load is usually used for, testing and tuning
transmitters. If you donít have dummy load, you can build them easily
from BNC RF connectors and the proper wattage/value of CARBON resistor(s).
DO NOT USE WIREWOUND OR METAL FILM RESISTORS! A useful one can be
constructed with 4 -220 Ohm 1/4 watt resistors in parallel (220/4
= 55 Ohms) with center conductor to outershell (ground) of an RF
connector. That is pretty close to 50 Ohms and if you use 1/4 watt
resistors you get a nifty 2 Watt Dummy Load for testing your equipment
without an antenna. Commercial Dummy loads are available for $5.00
-$25.00

The simplest possible aerial for VHF is known
as the Half-wave Dipole:

Dipole

Both elements can
be either aluminum/copper tubes or wire. The lengths of each dipole,
L, is calculated from your transmitting frequency by this formula:

L = 71/F (meters),
where F is operating frequency in MHz

A half-wave dipole used vertically is omnidirectional, but when
used horizontally it has a figure of eight coverage like this (wives
from top) :

Note: A dipole needs
a Balanced Feed as it is symmetrical, but a coaxial cable provides
an Unbalanced Feed. What's needed is a Balun (BALance to UNbalance)
transformer. These can be made out of bits of coaxial cable. If
you don't do this power will be radiated from the feeder. You CAN
use it without BALUN, but you might get lower-than-expected performance
and unusual radiation pattern due to interactions with the feeder.

I recommend this
aerial to beginners, as your knowledge broadens go for one of the
following babies:

GP
Antenna

Click here
for alternative image. Most designs on the web don't compensate
for the fact that GP aerials are not wideband aerials. Here is a
Freq./element length chart for this simple GP aerial, all elements
are in millimeters:

Frequency

Radiator
- B

Radials
- A

108MHZ

660

693

104MHz

684

720

100MHz

713

749

90MHz

792

819

If you have SWR meter,
leave a bit longer radiator and adjust it later by cutting to achieve
minimum SWR.

We
will publish a number of antenna designs here, these have all been
submitted to our forum by our forum members, most notably NormB
in his best days. A number of links is provided at the bottom, leading
to design sources or other interesting resources regarding J-pole
antenna construction. Some of the designs were made for 144MHz (2m
ham band) and need to be scaled down for 100MHz operation. This
usually means increasing element size for roughly 144/100 = 1.44
(44% increase).

Here
are instructions and construction details for one interesting antenna.
Check these other cool links:

Precise manufacturing,
excellent technical characteristics and no-tune wideband operation
make this log-periodical aerial a recommended aerial for all FM
MAX transmitters. Remember that this is a 6-element directional
aerial, meaning it radiates most of the power in one direction,
significantly boosting range in that direction.

Would
you like to maintain our guides and become famous? Want to write
exciting/usefully articles for others? http://www.pcs-electronics.com/information_contact_us.phpContact
us with a bit of news about yourself today!